Achievements and bottlenecks of heterosis breeding of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) in India

Abstract

Heterosis breeding has been commercially exploited in sunflower and is expected to enhance productivity further. This is the only crop which has more than 80% sunflower growing area under the hybrids. The first hybrid (BSH-1) of sunflower from public sector was released for commercial cultivation in 1980. Since then the hybrid breeding program has been quite successful and 29 productive hybrids were developed by both public (18) and private sectors (11). Inspite of these successes, problems in the form of stagnating and unstable yields, genetic vulnerability and susceptibility to various diseases are threatening sunflower productivity in India. One of the major challenges would be to develop newer hybrids for diverse situation and superior to those presently grown in terms of seed and oil yield in order to sustain the competitive ability of sunflower vis-avis other crops. There is a need for new CMS lines with diverse cytoplasm having several desirable attributes like dwarfness and early maturity. The diverse CMS lines are expected to contribute towards the development of superior hybrids producing high seed yield and oil content with better heterosis and stability. The CMS base exploited in the sunflower breeding programmes is narrow and there is an urgent need for widening the CMS and restorer (R) line base for enhancing the productivity and production of sunflower.